Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from Heb 12.1 and following. Indeed, a child is subjected in his family to paternal education. She will make him shed a few tears, but, having grown up, he will have reason to thank his parents. For if we are sons and daughters of God, it is impossible that we do not have to deal with His discipline, for the holy God wants to train His children in His image. However, this discipline could lead us to two opposite reactions: First of all to despise it, to take no account of it. Now we have to be “exercised by it,” that is, to judge ourselves before the Lord by seeking for what reason He sends us this trial (Job 5:17-18). The opposite danger is that we lose heart (Eph 3:8-13). So let us remember the name given to the disciplined believer: “the one whom the Lord loves.” Let’s pursue peace with all, but without it being at the expense of sanctification. Let’s not forget that we ourselves are the objects of grace, and drive out of our hearts the roots of bitterness (germs of poison). Hidden first, they will manifest themselves sooner or later if they are not judged immediately (Deut 29:14-19). Esau, who could not be named in the previous chapter with his family members, is here for his eternal shame. Let none of us look like him!
Here again a contrast is established between what the Law offered and what the Christian now possesses in Christ. In the terrible Sinai, God will substitute grace in Zion in the next reign of the Messiah (Ps 2:1-9). But the child of God is already coming to a higher order of blessings. He is invited to climb the slopes of this mountain of grace, to enter by faith into the “city of the living God”, the heavenly Jerusalem and to greet its inhabitants. He meets the myriads of angels, then the assembly of the firstborn, that is, the Church. At the top, it is God Himself, “judge of all,” but who receives him as redeemed from His Son. Descending to the foot, to the divine base of all these glories, he finds the “spirits of the righteous who have come to perfection,” and Jesus, mediator of a new covenant, sealed by his own blood. “And my home is there,” says a hymn. If all the changing things are called to pass soon, I receive an unshakable kingdom; my name is written in heaven (Luke 10:17-22). And the same grace that gives me access to it already allows me to serve this holy God. Not in a way that is pleasing to me, but that is pleasing to Him. Piety, the fear of displeasing Him will keep me in the path of His will!
The author of the epistle will therefore set out the practical exhortations arising from his teaching and applying in a special way to the state of mind of the Hebrew believers and the dangers they faced. He strives to revive their zeal and encourage them. For the multitude of the righteous mentioned in the previous chapter, and compared to a cloud, were composed of witnesses who all testified to this great truth that “the righteous will live in faith.” The Hebrews were to walk in the footsteps of these men. But the author crowns the picture they present, placing before the eyes of those to whom he writes and before ours, the One who walks at the head of all these witnesses, the witness par excellence, before whom the testimony of all the others pales, however great and appreciated he might have been in the eyes of God. This witness is Jesus: He is the Head and consumer of the faith that has characterized all the righteous. He gave the perfect example; he is its Chief; he has gone through its entire career in all its perfection. So it is the consumer. The just before him had been tested, one in one way, the other in another; each one, according to the position in which he had found himself, had walked part of the path of faith, and had given witness there; Jesus walked from one end of the career to the other, tested in everything in which human nature can be. And in everything and by everything, whether by men, by Satan, or even by the abandonment of God, he persevered constantly in obedience, patience, trust, showing at the same time also the energy in love that faith produces, when he renounced all glory and suffered the cross. In him, faith was consumed, made perfect.
For if grace has brought us near to God, so that we are free in His presence, there is still the Almighty God, the holy and just God, and we are before His Sovereign Majesty. Our service must therefore be carried out “with reverence and fear”, in the awareness of its greatness and the respect due to it. This respect and fear, linked to the feeling of grace, will give our worship an extremely high character. May we be penetrated into it in all our walk which must be a daily service! Thus the motive of our service is grace, and its character, the way to accomplish it, is respect and fear.
The reason given to us is solemn. “For also our God is a devouring fire”: “our God,” notice him, and not God apart from Christ. The God who consumed Nadab and Abihu for offering before Jehovah a foreign fire (Lev 10:1, 2); the God who declares to the Israelites, warning them against idolatry, that he is a consuming fire, a jealous God (Deut. 4:24), is also our God, the God of Christians, and dwells in his character of holiness that makes him judge evil. He does not want to suffer in those who approach him any defilement, nothing that recalls in the spiritual sense the foreign fire, nor idolatry. He wants us all for Himself.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
Eyes fixed on Jesus:
- Christ’s example must be followed
Mt 11:29 Take my yoke upon you and receive my instructions, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your souls. Jn 13:15 for I have given you an example, that you may do as I have done to you. Phil 2:5 Have within you the feelings that were in Jesus Christ, Col 3:13 Support one another, and if one is inclined to complain about the other, forgive one another. Just as Christ forgave you, forgive yourself too.
- Sufferings of Christ
Ps 69:21 Opprobrium breaks my heart, and I am sick; I expect pity, but in vain, from comforters, and I find none. Is 53:5 But He was wounded for our sins, Broken for our iniquities; The punishment that gives us peace has fallen upon him, and it is through his bruises that we are healed. Mk 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which means: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Hb 13:12 This is why Jesus too, in order to sanctify the people by his own blood, suffered outside the door.
- Despised correction
Isaiah 9:12 The people do not return to the one who strikes them, and they do not seek the Lord of hosts. Jer 2:30 In vain have I struck your children; They did not have regard to the correction; Your sword has devoured your prophets, like a destructive lion. Hb 12:5 And you have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons: My son, do not despise the Lord’s chastisement, and do not lose heart when he takes you back; Rev 16:11 and they blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their pains and ulcers, and they did not repent of their works.
- Examples of men dominated by the Fear of God
Ne 5:15 Before me, the first governors overwhelmed the people, and received from them bread and wine, in addition to forty sicles of money; their very servants oppressed the people. I did not do so, out of fear of God. Jon 1:9 He answered them: I am Hebrew, and I fear Jehovah, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the earth. Acts 5:11 A great fear took hold of the whole assembly and all those who learned these things. Acts 10:2 This man was pious and feared God, with his whole house; he gave many alms to the people, and prayed to God continuously.
From all the above, let us note that we must fix our gaze on Jesus, Guide and Model of the life of faith, his Head and the One who fully fulfills it. He too had an object before Him, more powerful than the cross, than shame, than all his suffering. From one end of the letter to the other, the believer follows a common thread that constantly traces the superiority of the full manifestation of God in Christ, the Son of God, the high priest, and the mediator of the new covenant, over all the revelations, ordinances, and persons of the Old Testament. Christ is greater than the prophets and angels, higher than Moses, Joshua, and Aaron. The Israelite worship with all its sacrifices represented only a shadow of reality: the offering of Jesus Christ made once and for all. Often, the many words of the Old Testament are introduced to highlight the contrast between the old and new covenants and to show their fulfillment in Christ. Let us follow in his footsteps without delay. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow “various exhortations; Jesus the good shepherd of the sheep.”
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.